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The Nautilus [85 shallow]- New family member


lkoechle

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And i am broke. Broke broke broke. Buuuuuut, i got everything on my equipment list! And more! My vertex skimmer and aqualifter pump should be here tuesday. My ato (hydor smart level) came a couple days ago as well as our security cameras, one for the display and one for the sump, we ordered the apex gold package, leak module and probes, wxm module, vdm module, afs, probe rack, battery back up and a break out box today along with the ext rail to hang the AIs and a bottle of microbactor (from past experience, i think it helps the cycle personally). Finally, my husband claimed we NEEDED tablet to control the apex so we got a galaxy s tablet for him. He really just wanted a new toy. Lol

 

And we also bought a frdige because that was our original black friday plan.

 

We have started filling the tank. Its about halfway. So when our package gets here monday or tuesday we should be able to plumb the sump and display and start the cycle by the end of next week. YAY!

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Woo! Reef fairy paid me a visit today in the guise of a UPS man!
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That's two visits in one week! Earlier this week I got my Vertex skimmer, which you can see is sitting in the sump.

Hubby is at the store now buying a mounting board for the Apex. The Apex should be in the stand tonight as well as the magnetic catches for the front panel of the stand being done and the plumbing will be drying overnight in the garage.

Let me tell you, this has been a hell of a last two weeks. We drove 32 hours for Thanksgiving, my greyhound was attacked by my brother-in-law's shepard, my husband's grandfather passed away, I found out my grandmother has cancer, my step-father is in jail for not paying my mother child support, my new fridge was delivered today only to find out we needed to drill through our tile countertops to make it fit that extra 1/2 inch, and my 9 month old son broke his leg so he's now in a cast. It's been crazy. I cannot wait to have this tank done. It will be so nice to relax in this room. I also HATE messes so having the formal living room helter-skelter with fish stuff is driving me up the wall. So close to being finished!

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Slowly but surely! Got the lights up and apex mounted. Husband is doing plumbing today. As you can tell by now, I am perpetually optimistic about scheduling seeing we are about 3 weeks behind lol. But that's how almost all DIY projects ever are. For hiding the ATO and misc stuff such as battery back up and UPS, we are putting them in to our IKEA BILLY bookcases and then buying half panel, half glass doors. That way they are out of site and can be child proofed. Pretty happy with that because I was worrying about having fish crap all over the room and I love neat and tidy.

In the pics, the water level is so low because we wanted to start the cycle since it's all base rock and we're doing a fishless cycle with straight ammonia. We needed to start that ASAP, so before the plumbing is done. lol

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APEX control panel before everything was wired up. I haven't down cable management, so you don't get to see everything hooked up until after I fix that...
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And a photo of me and my son in his new lillebaby carrier because he's just too cute!

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Woo! Reef fairy paid me a visit today in the guise of a UPS man!

1525444_10204277029858524_81944929348659

 

That's two visits in one week! Earlier this week I got my Vertex skimmer, which you can see is sitting in the sump.

 

Hubby is at the store now buying a mounting board for the Apex. The Apex should be in the stand tonight as well as the magnetic catches for the front panel of the stand being done and the plumbing will be drying overnight in the garage.

 

Let me tell you, this has been a hell of a last two weeks. We drove 32 hours for Thanksgiving, my greyhound was attacked by my brother-in-law's shepard, my husband's grandfather passed away, I found out my grandmother has cancer, my step-father is in jail for not paying my mother child support, my new fridge was delivered today only to find out we needed to drill through our tile countertops to make it fit that extra 1/2 inch, and my 9 month old son broke his leg so he's now in a cast. It's been crazy. I cannot wait to have this tank done. It will be so nice to relax in this room. I also HATE messes so having the formal living room helter-skelter with fish stuff is driving me up the wall. So close to being finished!

 

Holy cow! You need to relax and have a glass of wine. There is way too much going on for you right now! I'm sorry for all your troubles and hope your son, greyhound and grandmother are doing well.

 

Your tank is going to be great and I love the room color. Following along. Can't wait to see!

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That's some serious tech going on there. Love it!
Thats a sweet scape! Love it! You guys sure are dropping some big dough onto this! :)

Yeah, this is the biggest tank we can fit in our house without needing to take out walls and reinforce floors for a massive tank. So we're treating this as "the tank" we'll have for years. The only upgrade for it I could see us doing is ordering a rimless starfire in the same dimensions. The guy we bought the tank from did the same thing. lol My husband also only likes this hobby because of the tech stuff. He's a programmer. I'm in it for the livestock and husbandry, he's in it for the tech.

 

Holy cow! You need to relax and have a glass of wine. There is way too much going on for you right now! I'm sorry for all your troubles and hope your son, greyhound and grandmother are doing well.

 

Your tank is going to be great and I love the room color. Following along. Can't wait to see!

I've had several glasses lol. Thanks for the compliments on the room color! It turned our way better then what I imagined. I'm super excited to paint the dining room now to match, but as my husband says, "ONE ROOM AT A TIME!" lol

 

Tank looks great. Looking forward to seeing more. :naughtydance:

 

We're pretty stoked. I'm going to be a putting a poll soon to try and figure out what my christmas present of first fish (after the clowns go in of course) will be for the tank.

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So got the plumbing all working . The only immediate problem we had was the drain being so loud. We fixed that tonight with an interesting spin on the reverse durso. We connected the drain to 90 elbow which went to a an upside down tee to another 90 elbow to a drain below the water line with drilled holes. The holes were from a previous attempt to silence the drain but ended up working perfectly for this. When we use a new solid piece of pvc for the project, it got all riled up again. So that non-drilled stretch went into the upside down tee for the air. Pictures for reference.

 

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Sooooo the tank is done! But husband won't let me show anyone until he finishes hanging the front panel of the stand. Everything looks perfect! The feeling of seeing the vision in you head come to reality is awesome. Totally cannot wait to post photos. Y'all are gonna love it! I squee everytime I walk in the room.

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Can't wait - get then pics up.

Tonight! I promise! I'm looking at that damn front panel leaning against the stand right now as I type. Husband has to get shorter screws for the picture hangers.

 

Also, Ammonia is sitting at zero as of three days ago. I'm hoping the nitrites have gone down as well, but I haven't tested today yet. Hopefully the cycle will be done in another couple of weeks! I've got my eye on a Florida Fighting Conch as a member of the CUC from reefcleaners. I already bought some algae wafers for him and picked out his name. I have to admit, I never realized conches were a kind of snail. Makes me feel better about the idea of escargo considering I've been eating conch fritters my whole life! My mom already asked if she could fry him up when she comes to visit this summer... No, mama, this one is my pet, you go find someone else to turn into food. I am a little weirdly overexcited about the idea of a conch.

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PHOTOS! I will also take a photo tomorrow during the day time. I was just too excited to share tonight.

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Full set up. And yes, there are goodies in those book cases!

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ATO containers with aqualifter pump above it and various feesh supplies. On the shelf above that is our Universal Power Supply, wireless network adapter for the Apex, and our Vortech battery back up. This way, in the event of a power outage, pumps can still run and the apex and adapter which are on the UPS can send alerts. We have the router on a UPS upstairs in the office so the whole system can stay connected to the webz.

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And boom! All tidy and hidden. The other bookcase holds two other ATO reservoirs so I can just easily switch them out. This allows me to keep 20 gallons of RO/DI on hand.

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Mounting board for Apex.

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Front panel removed

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This pic was taken before cable management was finished. Our sump security camera and other power strip for non-EB8 plugged equipment. You can see the display camera in the first photo above the vortech pump controls.

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Awesomeness contained.

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There are more than a few builds that baffle me in regards to how much some can spend on an aquarium...

 

Now I don't mean that comment as a bad thing... Everyone has their own way of doing things, right? That said I think this tank is definitely going to be "drool worthy"... With all the set up and functionality of the tank being so grand I'm sure the eventual stocking will be as well, so I'm really looking forward to that.

 

A few other questions - I'm curious about the cleats you used... Are those actual cleats for hanging the front and side panels or are they some sort of bracket that's been bent into a cleat? Either way I think that's a great way to hang the panels and still keep maintenance a breeze. I would suggest, if you haven't already, to put some rubber feet or weather stripping on the bottom of the panels and maybe on the back too so that when you take them off for maintenance they don't damage the floors or walls. Also so they won't fall over when they're propped against a wall. Plus it would be safer for the little one. Initially I was thinking you could make a sort of flip out bracket that would hold the panel securely upright, but it's probably just as easy to lean it against the side of the tank between the bookshelf...

 

What kind of sand bed did you use? It's hard to tell in the pictures.

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There are more than a few builds that baffle me in regards to how much some can spend on an aquarium... Now I don't mean that comment as a bad thing... Everyone has their own way of doing things, right? That said I think this tank is definitely going to be "drool worthy"... With all the set up and functionality of the tank being so grand I'm sure the eventual stocking will be as well, so I'm really looking forward to that. A few other questions - I'm curious about the cleats you used... Are those actual cleats for hanging the front and side panels or are they some sort of bracket that's been bent into a cleat? Either way I think that's a great way to hang the panels and still keep maintenance a breeze. I would suggest, if you haven't already, to put some rubber feet or weather stripping on the bottom of the panels and maybe on the back too so that when you take them off for maintenance they don't damage the floors or walls. Also so they won't fall over when they're propped against a wall. Plus it would be safer for the little one. Initially I was thinking you could make a sort of flip out bracket that would hold the panel securely upright, but it's probably just as easy to lean it against the side of the tank between the bookshelf... What kind of sand bed did you use? It's hard to tell in the pictures.

Well, this is the largest set up we can put in our house until we do some massive renovations. So we figured we may as well pour a lot of money in it. lol Also we were tired of tank sitters causing GHA outbreaks and the like while we're away so with the apex we can more easily stay in control and see the tank while we're gone to bug the sitter. :P Definitely gives that peace of mind.

 

I'm not sure our stocking will be grand. We're pretty cheap folk despite how much we've put into the system. lol but our local reef group has some really nice stuff and are pretty generous with their prices and trades. So we'll see :)

 

The "cleats" I got from another nano-reef person. They're picture hangers

 

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B000VW7W7G/ref=mp_s_a_1_2?qid=1418917455&sr=8-2&dpPl=1&dpID=31x%2Br88eEUL&ref=plSrchπ=AC_SX200_QL40

 

We have two on the front 1/2 inch panel and one each on the 1/4 inch side panels.We haven't put anything on the panels yet but we will be for vibration dampening. At the moment, I'm thinking of getting some of those little rubber feet that are on the back of china hutch doors. I'm not too concerned about floor or wall damage. I keep yoga mats (from my failed attempts at yoga) for propping them up against the wall and they're slide proof too so no worries there.

 

The sand is CaribSea's Bimini Pink. I LOVE it. I grew up in Florida and the sand and texture is exactly like the beaches I grew up with right down to all the pretty crushed pink shells. Makes me think of home all the time :) And just like home, you never know what pretty tiny shells you'll find! lol

 

Close ups of the sand:

 

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I really need to learn how to make the pictures more true to life. Anyone know how on an android phone?

 

Looks great! What kind of webcams are those and were they pretty easy to link to the Apex?

 

The webcams are dlink. They are not hooked to the apex yet. Husband has some sort of security thing he needs to change first on the router to hook them up :)

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As far as the cycle goes, Ammonia is zero both nitrites and nitrates are off the charts. Ammonia has been zero for about 4 days with the high nitrites and nitrates. Today I woke up to a welcome surprise of the beginnings of a diatom bloom, so I'm going to hold tight until after Christmas and see if my nitrates can get my nitrites under control before considering water changes. Fingers crossed. I hate that fishless cycling with base rocks takes so long... Patience... Patience... This is week two since we started dosing ammonia and three since filling it up and just running it with "live" sand. So I think we're moving at a pretty good clip considering there's no live rock even though it feels like FOREVER.

 

And that promised daytime photo

 

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Sweet picture! I like it a lot. I think the lighting, if it's really that light blue color in real life, is pretty amazing!

 

I noticed you painted the front of the black trim on the sump white, are you keeping the display black or will you paint it white? It may be a little more difficult to do at this stage, but not too bad if you use some thinned oil base paint (I think rustoleum actually makes a quart size) with a foam brush. I guess the only part that might look strange is the inside of the rim will still be black, but probably won't be noticeable in all honesty...

 

Finally, you're dosing ammonia, it seems like adding a dose of bottled bacteria might help some... Seems like it works well enough for most people. I'll probably end up using some when I set my tank up in a few weeks because I'll be using mostly dry rock with a small amount of really old live rock (like its been sitting in a bin of salt water for over a year).

 

Here's the thread, let me know what you think...

http://www.nano-reef.com/topic/355073-spores-cysts-and-dormant-things-on-old-live-rock/

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That tank looks awesome in that space. I like the skin on the stand. I am expecting a lot from this build! What do you plan on stocking coral-wise?

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Sweet picture! I like it a lot. I think the lighting, if it's really that light blue color in real life, is pretty amazing!

 

I noticed you painted the front of the black trim on the sump white, are you keeping the display black or will you paint it white? It may be a little more difficult to do at this stage, but not too bad if you use some thinned oil base paint (I think rustoleum actually makes a quart size) with a foam brush. I guess the only part that might look strange is the inside of the rim will still be black, but probably won't be noticeable in all honesty...

 

Finally, you're dosing ammonia, it seems like adding a dose of bottled bacteria might help some... Seems like it works well enough for most people. I'll probably end up using some when I set my tank up in a few weeks because I'll be using mostly dry rock with a small amount of really old live rock (like its been sitting in a bin of salt water for over a year).

 

Here's the thread, let me know what you think...

http://www.nano-reef.com/topic/355073-spores-cysts-and-dormant-things-on-old-live-rock/'>http://www.nano-reef.com/topic/355073-spores-cysts-and-dormant-things-on-old-live-rock/

 

The tank and sump are used. It was white when I bought it but it looks super clean withe white stand frame. So the display will stay black. If we ever decide to "upgrade" in the future, we'll probably do what the previous owner did and get the exact same dimensions in rimless starphire. His new tank is seriously awesome.

 

We are dosing with microbacter. I used it when cycling my previous tanks and I'm pleased with the product. Advanced Aquarist actually just came out with an article testing its effectiveness. It's pretty interesting considering a lot of people are iffy about bottled bacteria . Kind of heavy on the science but an interesting read none the less. http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2014/8/review

 

Personally, I would bake the crap out of your rock. But I'm paranoid about pests. I have about 15 pounds of liverock in my clownfish 10 gallon. Did I pull any of it out to help seed this tank? nope! Especially not since our thanksgiving tank sitter unleashed GHA outbreak in that tank. o.O I'm really wondering how much those fish got fed... When we came back, our cat was only suppose to have gone through 2 cans of wet food and there were 5 missing and he looked like a hippo. Oh well, at least nobody starved to death on the sitter's watch!

 

That tank looks awesome in that space. I like the skin on the stand. I am expecting a lot from this build! What do you plan on stocking coral-wise?

 

No idea but prepared for anything. I know we'll have about as many different zoanthid varieties as we can cram into it, husband and I both love zoas. I would like to try some SPS. I think birdsnest is very pretty but my husband doesn't care for most SPS. I'm still looking for inspiration in other folks' tanks. :) One thing I really want, even though its not a coral, is a Sunburst anemone.

 

But this tank is pretty much a blank canvas and I'm still seeking my muse. lol

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